Daniel Lozano

Updated Friday, April 5, 2024-02:13

  • Ecuador Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio murdered

New diplomatic crisis in the Americas. The government of

Daniel Noboa

has decided to expel the Mexican ambassador to Ecuador,

Raquel Serur,

whom he has also declared persona non grata. The reason is the controversial statements by President

Andrés Manuel López Obrador

about the assassination suffered by the presidential candidate

Fernando Villavicencio,

murdered 10 days before the electoral polls opened.

"Ecuador is still grieving for this unfortunate event, which caused shock in Ecuadorian society and threatened democracy, peace and security. The country continues to face transnational organized crime, which threatens the State and its institutions. democratic institutions and their population," the Foreign Ministry explained in a statement.

The explosion will be carried out in "short notice", although 72 hours are normally provided for them to leave the country. At the moment,

the two countries do not break diplomatic relations.

In his usual morning sessions, López Obrador explained in his usual ways how Villavicencio's murder had affected the favorite candidate,

Luisa González,

the standard bearer of Rafael Correa's Citizen Revolution

,

of whom he is a close ally. The Mexican president speculated about who benefited from the attack, supported by a battery of incorrect data.

Relations between the two countries were already very tense due to the support given by the Mexican government to

Jorge Glas,

former vice president of Rafael Correa, who took refuge in the Aztec embassy in Quito to flee from the justice system that was pursuing him for corruption. Glas, who has already spent several years in prison, was implicated in the Metastasis case, because according to the Prosecutor's Office investigations, a drug trafficking boss paid the judge who ordered Glass's release.

It so happens that in the judicial process being followed against those who recruited the Colombian hitmen (all murdered in prison) who committed the crime last August, they are part of the Los Lobos gang, close allies of the Mexican Jalisco Nueva Cartel. Generation.

In recent weeks, several presidents of the continent have crossed fire to put diplomatic relations between their countries at maximum tension. The leftist presidents of Brazil,

Lula da Silva,

and Colombia,

Gustavo Petro,

joined the block of countries that denounced

Nicolás Maduro

's latest electoral cacicada,

which provoked the angry reaction of Caracas and its Nicaraguan ally. Mexico, meanwhile, remains silent about blocking the democratic candidacy in Venezuela's presidential elections.

The scuffle that Mexico and Colombia also had with the Argentine president,

Javier Milei,

seems resolved. At least for now.